It is not sentiment, but pure hard-headed performance that has made OneWay chucks the favourite of professional woodturners around the world.  These four-jawed self-centring scroll chucks are renowned for their tenacious grip and feature a significant jaw movement which the OneWay chucks uniquely exploit with their profiled workholding jaws.

To ensure the widest possible compatibility of these chucks to the variety of lathe spindles, all these chucks use OneWay's unique precision taperlock adaptors to provide the spindle thread and to guarantee that the chuck runs true on the spindle.  A huge range of adaptors is available: we don't list them all in our selection tables, so if you need a thread that is not listed here, please contact us and chances are we can still help.

The scrolls of these chucks are precision machined before being case hardened for durability and plated with manganese phosphate to reduce the need for lubrication.  With a bore ground after heat treatment no adjustment is required in the (predictably very long) life of the chuck.

OneWay mounting jaws are made of 8620 alloy steel precision ground to exacting tolerances, ensuring a perfect fit.  Subsequent case hardening reduces wear and enhances strength as well as helping prevent seizure of the mounting jaws in the chuck body.  The body itself is precision machined from a solid steel ingot.  After machining the body is nickel plated to create a hard-wearing surface on which the mounting jaws and the scroll run.  At the same time the nickel plating provides corrosion resistance - especially useful if you're given to turning wet timber.

The workholding jaws (termed "top jaws" by OneWay themselves) are machined from steel and black passivated for wear and corrosion resistance.  It is important to note that jawsets produced for the stronghold chuck will not fit the Talon or OneWay models and vice-versa.  Equivalent jaws are available for all chuck series.  Talon and OneWay chucks share the same jaw range.  Unique to OneWay are their Profiled Jaws and these are well worth investing in.  These are the only workholding jaws which will safely and securely grip not just the nominal diameter of work, but a range of diameters around the nominal.  (Many woodturners still don't seem to appreciate that conventional dovetail jaws can only correctly grip a workpiece with the timber turned to match the nominal diameter of the jaw set: it is only at that nominal diameter that the jaws form a perfect circle - which is essential for a secure, non-marking grip on the workpiece.)  A table of the range of jaw sizes is provided here for reference.

There are three chuck models in the OneWay range and each of these is available either as a complete, ready-to-use chuck with a set of No. 2 Premium Profiled jaws, a 1.1/2" Woodworm screw and a suitable mounting bush to fit the lathe spindle or as a body-only package which provides the chuck with the mounting (base) jaws installed plus a suitable spindle thread adaptor, but no workholding jaws or woodworm screw.

The simplest of these chucks is the 4 inch (100 mm) diameter OneWay chuck, illustrated top, right, which is operated using two tommy bars: the attention to detail of OneWay is shown clearly in the design of this chuck with three tommy bar holes in the scroll and four in the body, ensuring that it is always possible to create an offset between the two levers.  At the same time, they can both be operated with one hand, removing the frequently-heard criticism of tommy bar operated chucks.  The tommy bars, or levers, are made of high strength steel to resist deformation and breakage.

Next in the line-up is the Talon chuck, which is a key-operated, 3 1/2" (90 mm) diameter chuck as shown above, left.  This chuck is designed to use the workholding jaws from the OneWay chuck but provides simple one-handed operation with a key operating through a 5:1 gear ratio for maximum clamping pressure.

Top of the line is probably the most tenacious chuck available for woodturning today.  The StrongHold chuck is 4 1/2" (115 mm) diameter key operated scroll chuck specifically designed for larger lathes, typically with a swing of 16" (400 mm) and over.  Of course this chuck can also be used on smaller lathes where a really secure grip on the work is essential. The precision machined gear teeth provide a ratio of 5:1 in the clamping mechanism so huge clamping forces can be generated even with modest pressure on the operating key.  The key itself is long so that is will clear the back of the workpiece and can be used comfortably with the larger sizes of Jumbo bowl reversing jaws.

So, all that's left is to select your chuck, decide whether you require a package with jaws and screwchuck or simply a "bare" chuck, select the spindle thread size and look forward to experiencing working with what is probably the finest woodturning chuck on the market today.

If you change lathes, or obtain an additional lathe, then you may need to change the spindle thread in your favourite Oneway chuck.  Instead of needing to replace the entire chuck, the Oneway taper-lock adaptor system allows you to simply remove the existing adaptor from the back of the chuck and install a different one to suit the new lathe.  Listed below are the more common threaded adaptors, though you should bear in mind that the less common of these may not be held in local stock.  It is also possible, for a fee, to have a chuck thread insert machined to your specific requirements, subject to technical review.

Please note that inserts are NOT interchangeable between the smaller chuck series (Oneway and Talon chucks) and the larger Stronghold chuck, since the Stronghold, normally used on larger lathes, has a larger bore to take larger spindle threads.